LOGINFive years ago, Nora Stirling was the invisible girl — the Alpha's youngest daughter who hid her identity, kept her nose in a book, and survived high school by staying in the shadows. The one person who made those years harder was Otto Forest, Alpha Heir of Silver Moon, whose careless cruelty left marks she never forgot. Now, on the eve of her twenty-third birthday, Nora is anything but invisible. As bestselling paranormal romance author Crystal_Lotus, she has built a life entirely on her own terms — until her brother Noah arranges the one thing she never saw coming. A mating. With Otto. What Nora doesn't know is that Otto never forgot her either. That he spent five years searching for her, writing letters that never arrived, and marking her memory permanently on his skin. When a high school reunion forces them into the same room before the announcement is made, two people with a complicated past must decide whether old wounds run too deep — or whether fate has been working toward this all along. A second chance arranged mating romance with a bully-to-lover arc, secret identities, pack politics, and a bond neither of them expected.
View MoreIt had been five years since Nora Stirling had last seen her High School bully, Alpha Heir Otto Forest of Silver Moon High.
The high reunion was to be held at the Moon’s Shadow Club. Although Nora was just the school’s nerd girl, of that year group, and was the youngest daughter of the Moonlit Falls pack’s Alpha, she kept it quiet, as she wasn’t in line for much, and well she knew knowing who she was meant that others would just treat her kindly to win favour with her father the Alpha Apollo and her eldest brother and heir to the pack Alpha Heir Noah.
It was easier for her to stay in the shadows, a reprieve from being one of seven Alpha pups of her father’s line; her being the youngest only made it worse.
“Nose in a book again, my lady,” the driver said, with a smirk.
“Fred, you know me too well, actually, to research for my next novel. Being the youngest daughter has some perks. No one really takes much notice of you and what you do in your spare time.”
“Must be lonely sometimes, miss even with such a large family.”
“Sometimes,” she agreed, “but my characters are all there when I need them.”
Fred nodded, “Of course, miss, that makes sense, we’re almost there, about three minutes out, looking forward to seeing anyone tonight?”
“Not really,” she sighed, “but Noah said that I had to go, at least to the first one.”
“What happens if you meet your mate tonight?”
“Well, considering who these people were before, I’d say I would be looking at a rejection. Which I would accept.”
Fred nodded, knowing that she meant every word. He had watched her grow up after picking her up and dropping her off at school each day, but she would make him pick her up a street away from the school, as she didn’t want anyone to know who she really was.
Then Nora had always been a more private person, even back at her family’s pack house. Her nose was either in a book, head down, with a pen and a notebook.
Meanwhile, Alpha Heir Otto was with his friends in the packs SVU…
“Dude, who are you looking forward to seeing the most?”
No one spoke for a moment, then. Luke broke the silence, “I know who Otto’s looking forward to seeing…”
“Linda?”
“No.”
“Lucy?”
“Wait, wait, I’ve got it, Nora Stirling, the year nerd.”
The car broke into laughter. All but Otto, who made more of a strangled sound.
He remembered the last time he saw her; she spoke to a handful of people at the presentation, then disappeared after it had finished. He never found her, even tried to find her years later, and even sent letters to her pack’s Alpha requesting to speak with her. But nothing did she just disappear from the face of the planet.
“Nah, man, I’ve spoken to a lot of people from our time at the school, no one has heard from her, since the presentation,” one of the others said, once he had stopped laughing.
‘No one had heard from her in all that time. What have I done? Did she hurt herself after what I used to…’ Otto’s thoughts rolled around his mind.
“Earth to Otto, you ok, man? You look like you saw a ghost.”
“Yeah, I…I just,” he stuttered, “I was just thinking that’s all.”
“Thinking about how you scored the nerd to do the class work for you when you were forced together, and since you were being nice to her, she thought it made you both friends, but you just…”
“Dude, honestly, I never picked her as my project partner; the teacher did, and she did the work to get a good grade because I backed out at the last minute when we were meant to work together. I didn’t really use her; I just wasn’t worried about my grades. She just made sure we passed, probably needed good grades. Although I was an ass to her.”
“Man, your arranged mating with the Lady Stirling of the Alpha line of the Moonlit Falls pack has gone to your head, you know, the chances that they're the same person, right?”
“Who said I thought they were? Just that it's weird, and father is only doing it because he says I need to settle down, even though I’ve never found my fated mate, nothing more.”
The guys crack into laughter once more, “Actually, if it is her, we should bet how long it takes him to win her over.”
“Oh my Goddess, yes, we so should.”
Otto wanted to run his hand down his face, as his friends would. He doubted that he would be the last wolf to have wondered what had happened to Nora since no one had heard from her. He had a tattoo on his right shoulder, a Moon Lotus flower. He had it done two years after he couldn’t find her; he had noticed she used to draw them in the margin of her notebooks. He asked her once what it was for she told him it was a pack tradtion it was to allow the Goddess to see that these who marked their work with is to see that they had learned her teachings. He had it done to show the Goddess he had learned from his mistakes and the pain that he had caused.
Instead, he turned away from his friends and spoke to the driver, " How long?”
“I’d say three minutes out, Alpha Heir.” The driver stated, and Otto could tell that he, too, had wished that he was anywhere but where he currently was.
Once inside his suite, Otto closed the door and leaned against it, exhaling slowly. The moonlight streamed through his windows, bathing the room in silver. He pulled Nora's business card from his pocket, running his thumb over the embossed lotus.Crystal_Lotus. The name suited her, beautiful yet strong, rare and precious.And soon she would be joining him at his pack, the shared living room between his suite and the Luna suite, which she soon would be moving into, for him to court her properly.The thought of her moving in so close to him sent a rush of heat through his body. Otto loosened his tie and tossed it onto the dresser, trying to process everything that had happened tonight. Five years of searching, of regret, and now Nora would be just on the other side of a shared living space. Close enough to catch her scent every day, yet still separated by walls and the weight of their complicated past.He crossed to the large windows overlooking the forest that surrounded the pack house
Luke and Marcus exchanged glances, visibly processing Otto's words. The tension in the SUV remained thick enough to cut with a knife."So you're saying there's a chance this Nora isn't the Lady Stirling?" Luke asked, his voice unusually subdued.Otto sighed, rubbing his temples where a headache was beginning to form. He didn't want to lie outright to his friends, but he couldn't betray Nora's confidence either. The weight of her business card pressed against his thigh through his pocket, a tangible reminder of their connection."What I'm saying is that regardless of who Lady Stirling turns out to be, our pack needs to make a good impression at the birthday celebration. The Moonlit Falls alliance is too important to jeopardise with immature behaviour."The car fell silent again. Otto turned back to the window, watching the familiar landmarks of their territory slip past. The moon hung heavy in the sky, nearly full, calling to his wolf. His tattoo seemed to burn beneath his sleeve, the
Now, as he moved to one of the passenger seats and the driver returned to the driver's seat, his friends started to file out of the Club one by one.Luke was the first to approach, his eyes narrowed as he took in Otto's rigid posture."Hey, you just disappeared after talking to the book nerd," he said, sliding into the seat across from Otto. "What's going on with you tonight?"Otto's jaw tightened at the dismissive term. Five years ago, he might have laughed along. Now, the casual disrespect made something protective flare in his chest."Her name is Nora," he said, keeping his voice even. "And she's accomplished more in five years than most of us will in a lifetime."Luke raised his eyebrows, exchanging glances with the others as they climbed into the vehicle. "Whoa, when did you become her biggest fan? Last I checked, you were dreading seeing her again."The memory of their earlier conversation in the car made Otto's stomach twist. How quickly things had changed in just a few hours.
Otto frowned as the implications settled over him. Noah Stirling, the Alpha Heir of the Moonlit Falls pack, had deliberately kept them apart for five years. Had he known about Otto’s feelings for Nora back then? Had he intercepted the letters to protect his little sister from someone with Otto’s reputation?The music shifted to something slower, more intimate. Otto watched as Nora gracefully navigated the social circle that had formed around her. She smiled and nodded at whatever Linda Matthews was saying, but Otto could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers occasionally smoothed the fabric of her dress, a nervous habit he remembered from their school days.He needed to know more about this arrangement. If Noah had been the one to suggest it, after years of keeping them apart, there had to be a reason.“Earth to Otto,” came a voice beside him. It was Emma Chen, her expression curious as she followed his gaze to where Nora stood. “You’ve been staring at her for the past






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